Something Forgotten
by Blue-Eyed-Butterfly
Summary: Riku leaves sora's house because he's in love with sora. But when sora confesses his love to Riku, he fails to mention a certain detail. Will this secret tear them apart, or will it make their love burn brighter? RXS Suicide/Self-Injury
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1:

Riku looked back at the house that he was sharing with Sora and Sora's mom. After he came back from castle oblivion, Riku had been a squatter in the abandoned house that his family had lived in before the Kingdom hearts incident. It was nearly close to falling apart, but it still had a roof and sheltered him from the cold.

After Sora found out, he begged his mom to let Riku live with them. "What are you doing?" Riku turned at the voice. Sora was standing in the doorway of his house looking at Riku slightly dazed and confused in nothing but his pajama bottoms. He hadn't expected Sora to wake up when he left. The smaller boy normally sleeps like a rock in a coma. Riku's voice box fell into his stomach. The concerned look on Sora's face just made Riku's heart melt. Sora eyed the duffel bag in Riku's hand.

"You were planning on leaving again weren't you?" Sora rightfully accused. Riku couldn't say anything. He just looked down and looked away. He couldn't face Sora. He knew that his resolve would be destroyed if he saw the hurt look on Sora's face…again.

"Riku, why are trying to run away again? I thought we were friends!" Riku couldn't help but smile sadly. Friends. That's right, only friends. Riku turned to Sora with a sad smile.

"I'm sorry Sora, but I can't stay here." Sora looked stunned.

"Why not? Did my mom say something to you? Was it something I did? Whatever it is I'm sorry! I'll make it right, but please! Just don't go! Please…" Sora looked just short of desperate. Riku dropped his bag on the floor and turned to face Sora.

"Do you really want to know why I can't stay here anymore?" Riku asked.

"Yes…" Sora answered him tiredly. Riku approached the younger boy. There was a five year difference between the two boys and you could definitely tell as Riku took Sora's face in his hands and kissed him gently. He stayed there for a moment and then pulled away. Sora was shocked and it was definitely visible in his eyes. He had been expecting a lot of things, but this was not one of them.

Still holding Sora's face Riku looked at him and said, "Because I don't deserve this." And with that he turned on his heels, retrieved his duffel bag from the floor and ran. He ran as far and as fast as his legs could carry him. Which happened to be to a pub called The Den of The Lion and The Wolf. It was owned and operated by Sora and Riku's friends from Traverse town, Cloud, Leon, Yuffie, Aerith, and Cid. He took a deep breath and pushed open the door.

The pub was practically deserted save for one brown haired girl in a pink dress standing behind the bar. The bell on the door rang as it closed and the girl looked up.

"Hey Aerith." He greeted her somewhat cheerfully. She looked up and smiled widely at him.

"Riku! It's so good to see you again!" She came around the side of the bar and gave him a big hug, and kissed his cheek.

Ever since all the world's had been put back into order Aerith had become the closest thing Riku had to a mom. When Destiny Island was restored all its inhabitants were returned. Except for Riku's parents. They seemed to have just vanished. Probably turned into heartless no doubt. Since then Sora's parent's had taken him in and taken care of him. Sora… At the thought of him, Riku's mask slipped and Aerith saw it.

"Why aren't you at home sleeping young man?" Riku looked down. Aerith sighed, put her hand on his shoulder and said "Come on." She led him to the back of the store and up a flight of stairs to the rooms. She opened the first door on the right and led him inside. Riku looked at her questioningly. She smiled and said, "I figured you'd end up here someday." He smiled at her.

"Thanks." She giggled.

"Oh don't mention it. Come downstairs once you get settled and I'll make you something to eat."

"Okay." He dropped his duffel bag on the bed and started unloading. After he put all of his clothes away, he unzipped the side pocket and pulled out two pictures in frames. The first one he set in the windowsill. It was the one of him and his parents at his fifth birthday. His mom had made a huge cake and his dad had made him a wooden sword that had his initials on one side of the hilt, and his parents on the other side.

The other one he put on the bedside table. It was one of the pictures of him, Sora, and Kairi. It was his favorite one. Him and Sora were sitting on a log with their arms around each other's shoulders. Kairi was standing behind them making bunny ears behind their heads. Sora made such a fuss about it when the timer ran out and he looked at the picture on the digital. He chased Kairi with the camera for a good half hour before she finally climbed up a tree she knew Sora couldn't.

Suddenly, Riku's vision went blurry as his eyes welled up with tears. He hastily wiped them away with the back of his hand. It was no use crying now. Sora had always loved Kairi. She was the only one for him. Throughout the entire Kingdom Hearts ordeal, the only reason Riku kept trying to get Kairi's heart back was because he wanted Sora to be happy. But where did that leave Riku? Sora still wouldn't be his. He thought that he could be happy as long as Sora was happy, you know that old saying, 'If you truly love someone, you'd rather them be happy with someone else than be miserable with you.' But it just made Riku miserable.

Now thoroughly frustrated with his emotions he threw his duffel into the closet and walked out of the room as he was closing the door he just narrowly dodged a psychotic flying ninja, literally.

"Hmph, so much for stealthy like a ninja." Riku smirked at the twig-like ninja girl laying face down on the floor spread eagle.

"Hey! What are you talking about? I'm the Great ninja Yuffie!" She quickly stood up and dusted herself off all 'I-meant-to-do-that'.

"Yeah, you're great something. Greatly clumsy." He loved to pick on her.

"I'm not clumsy! I told you all already, that staircase came out of nowhere! Someone put it there while I wasn't looking!" She started to get flustered.

"Sure and I suppose someone tripped you just now?"

"Well if you hadn't moved I wouldn't have done that! I was only trying to hug you! I haven't seen you in a month!" Riku opened his mouth to say something else when they both heard a loud crash come from downstairs followed by a loud yell and an even louder scream.

"LEON YOU IDIOT!! CAN'T YOU READ!? THE FREAKIN FLOOR SAYS 'NO ONE BEHIND BAR! FLOOR WET!!' WE DON'T GET ANOTHER LIQUOR SHIPMENT UNTIL FRIDAY!! DAMMIT!!"

Riku and Yuffie ran down the stairs to see what had happened. Yuffie hit the ground floor and barely caught herself before she landed flat on her back. Her feet slipped out from under her and she did a back handspring over Riku back onto the staircase. Riku however was not so lucky. His footing slipped and he tried to catch himself but only succeeded in landing on his side. Yuffie smiled down at him.

Riku took a good whiff of the air and noted that he was laying in an unpleasant mixture of a number of alcohols.

"Who's the clumsy one now?" Riku looked from side to side, then looked up at Yuffie and said "You." Her cheeks pinked, but she just smirked. Riku knew this wasn't going to end well. He felt Yuffie's shoe on his shoulder just before she gave him a harsh shove with her foot. He went gliding across the liquor soaked floor.

He raised his hand up holding his index finger up and shouted, "You're still the clumsy one!" She yelled in frustration.

After a couple of tries Riku finally managed to stably stand on two feet. He carefully walked over to see what had happened. There were slide marks approximately the size of Leon's shoe and Leon was sitting on the floor with a dust pan and a hand broom sweeping up the glass with Aerith standing over him looking rather pissed off.

"What happened here?" Yuffie jumped up onto the bar and sat cross-legged. Aerith continued to glare at the brown haired man.

"Captain Duffus here, who apparently can't read, tried to get behind the bar despite the sign that I laid on the floor AND hung on the bar 'NO ONE BEHIND BAR! FLOOR WET!'

"I said I was sorry! Gees!" He hunched over and mumbled to himself.

"Devil woman, I didn't do nothing wrong." Aerith tensed and grabbed a fistful of his hair.

"What was that!? Do you mind repeating that Squall?" Riku and Yuffie blanched. It couldn't have been scarier had she been yelling it. Leon actually whimpered at that.

"No ma'am."

"Good. Now once your done sweeping this up, you get to mop, and then hang the 'CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE' sign up on the front door." She hissed through grit teeth.

"Yes, ma'am." She turned, and faster than you could say bipolar, demon woman from the abyss was replaced by the picture perfect mother. It made Yuffie and Riku both flinch. They looked at each other and they both had the same look on their face saying that they'd hate to be on the receiving end of that temper.

"Who's hungry?" she smiled at the two younger ones. Suddenly, as if on cue Riku's stomach gave a loud growl. This made Aerith giggle.

"I'll get dinner ready then." She walked into the kitchen and Riku carefully inched into the back room to get a mop and bucket and helped Leon clean up. Yuffie hung the 'CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE' sign in the front window. They had just finished putting things up when Aerith came walking back into the room with a steaming pot. She placed it down on one of the tables and looked at Riku.

"Riku, could you come into the kitchen with me for a minute?"

"Uh, sure." He stood up and followed her into the kitchen. She pulled out a loaf of bread from the breadbox and handed it to him along with a bread knife. Riku may not have been the brightest crayon in his momma's box, but he could put two and two together. While he cut the bread Aerith gathered bowls, napkins, and spoons.

"So what happened?" She asked.

"What do you mean?" He replied.

"No answering questions with questions. What caused you to leave Sora's?" Riku stopped for a second.

"Nothing."

"That's the problem." Riku and Aerith whipped around at the voice. Cloud stood in the doorway.

"Hi Cloud! You made it just in time for dinner." Clouds arms were crossed over his chest. He looked at Riku with a cold gaze.

"Seems like we have a full house tonight then." Cloud said a little too vaguely.

"What do you mean?" Aerith questioned Cloud while Riku became a little more nervous.

"Cid's here. He's out there talking to Yuffie. And Tifa too. And we have one more guest." Riku's blood ran cold.

"Who, Cloud?" Aerith asked, but Riku knew what was coming next. Cloud stepped to the side and there in the doorway was the last person Riku wanted to see right now.

Riku was able to gasp out something that only he heard.

"Sora…no…"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

Chapter 2:

"Sora! What a surprise! Shouldn't you be asleep in bed? What are you doing here?" Aerith babbled as Sora stared hard at Riku. Riku was frozen in place. He didn't know what to do. For once, he didn't know what to do.

"I came looking for him." Sora stated plainly once Aerith finally ran out of words. He indicated Riku with his chin.

"Oh well, then lets all sit down and eat shall we? I made a nice big pot of stew. There's plenty to go around. And I baked fresh bread this morning so we'll all be able to have plenty! What do you say?" Sora looked at Riku as if waiting for him to make a move, hell even breath, because god knows that wasn't what he was doing at that very moment.

Riku took a hesitant step back. Sora reached his hand out and made a move towards him. Riku shook his head he couldn't handle this. Riku turned and made a mad dash for the back door.

He burst through the back door and turned down an alley. He heard Sora's footsteps behind him and gaining. He jumped up onto a box and ran across a couple of roofs. He grabbed a gutter and swung himself under. He pressed his body up against a window ledge and watched Sora drop right in front of him. Sora looked in both directions and he must have heard something because he darted right and disappeared from view.

Riku smiled at himself and swung himself back onto the roof and made his way back to the pub. Once there he walked in the front door not even trying to be sneaky about it.

"Riku!" Aerith gasped when he walked in the door.

"I was so worried about you when you took off like that? What's happened? What is going on?" Riku ignored her and walked right past her up the stairs and into his room. He shut and locked the door, locked the window, pulled the blinds closed and laid down face first in the bed and pretended that nothing else in the world existed. Today was a very bad day to be him.

As he layed on the bed he succeeded in thinking that nothing else existed until he heard a knock on the door. He ignored it, of course. But whoever it was, was darn persistent.

"Go away!" He yelled a little louder than intended.

"Now you see Riku, I can't exactly do that." He heard Cloud reply.

"Why the hell not?" Riku snapped back at the older man.

"Because this is my house, now unlock the god damn door." Riku lifted his head and mouthed fuck. Cloud had a point. That still wasn't going to make the silver haired boy unlock the door.

"Riku?" Cloud demanded.

"Kindly kiss off and die." He retorted and promptly continued smothering himself with the pillow.

"Fine, you leave me no choice." Riku braced himself. He expected the door to come flying open, or wood to start splintering, but all he heard was a dull click and knob turn.

"You know Riku, you should really try to remember who's house this is when you lock a door, and start considering the fact that they just might have a key." Cloud smiled smartly as he jingled a set of keys on a key ring.

"Could you please go choke on something Cloud?" Riku's voice was muffled by the pillow as he said this.

Cloud leaned against the doorframe and folded his arms across his chest. Riku was so not in the mood for this. He sat up on the bed and glared at the blonde man standing in his doorway.

"What do you want?" Riku asked with an irritated tone.

"You know, Sora worries about you. A lot. Maybe you should be a little more considerate to him. Especially since he was the one who was hurt the most when you took the dark side.

"Well isn't that the pot calling the kettle black." Riku noted. Cloud tensed at this.

He wasn't proud of what he had done. Quite the contrary, he highly regretted siding with Hades, the god of the underworld. But he had done it to find someone that he loved. He knew that still didn't make it right but it didn't change the fact that at the time he thought he was doing it for a good cause. However, Riku was trying to help two people. Sora and Kairi, but he did it for selfish reasons. But Riku had a point. Cloud was in no position to point out flaws in the design.

"What do you know about who was hurt? You don't know anything about it!" Riku struggled to keep his voice steady as he yelled at Cloud, despite the rising lump in his throat.

"I know a lot more than you think." Cloud stated vaguely. A heavy silence filled the house as neither man spoke for a long while. Somewhere they heard a door close. Cloud stared down hard at Riku. Riku stared right back at him with just as much intensity.

"You don't know jack shit." Riku said in a huff and laid back down on the bed facing the wall hoping it would be enough to make the older man drop the subject and just leave him be. No such luck.

"I know you're in love with Sora." Cloud said plainly. Riku's eyes widened involuntarily at these words and he launched himself off the bed and approached the older man. He glared at Cloud with a cold hatred in his eyes, a mere three inches from his face.

"It doesn't matter how I feel! It never mattered how I felt! Telling him how I feel isn't gonna make him run into my arms, it's not gonna make him love me back, it's not gonna make a lick of difference! He's still going to love Kairi the most! He's always loved Kairi the most and that's probably never going to change!" Riku was screaming now, and he was ready to throw punches. He flinched when Cloud lifted one of his hands and touched Riku's face. Riku looked at clouds hand and saw that it was glistening with tears.

Riku lifted his hand and touched his face and felt tears falling. They heard a noise and both men turned to look. There stood Sora, looking like he had been slapped. Riku looked from Cloud to Sora.

"Oh god…" Riku's breath left his lungs with those two simple words. Had Sora heard that? Had he heard everything?

He pointed at Cloud.

"You…You bastard!" Riku yelled accusingly. He looked at Sora, tears still falling. Sora took a step towards him.

"Riku I…" But Sora's words were cut off by Riku.

"No! I don't want to hear it!" Sora flinched at the harshness of Riku's words. Riku shoved Cloud out of the room, and managed to snatch the keys out of Clouds hand. He slammed the door and locked it.

"Riku! Riku, open the door! Please open the door!" Sora yelled and pounded on the door. Riku put his back against the door and slid down it until he was sitting on the floor with his knees drawn to his chest. He let his head fall and held the back of his head. Riku sat there all the while crying. He had never cried, not since he was a small child, and he didn't know how to make it stop.

Finally, the beating on the door subsided. Unfortunately the crying didn't. He continued to cry until he fell asleep, listening to the sound of Sora softly saying his name on the other side of the door.

Riku opened his eyes and blinked as he was blinded by a bright light. He rolled over and then it dawned on him that he was laying in his bed with the blanket pulled over him. He noticed a piece of paper on his night stand and picked it up.

"Riku,

The thing about owning a house that people are constantly going in and out of is that you ALWAYS have a spare set of keys stashed somewhere.

P.S.

Don't even think of leaving this room without talking to a certain someone. See you at lunch.

-Cloud"

"Hmph, if he thinks that I can't avoid Sora he's got another…." Riku looked up and saw Sora sitting in a chair leaning against his bedroom door fast asleep. Riku smiled. He walked over to the sleeping boy and picked him up. Sora automatically cuddled closer to the warm body.

Riku smiled as he remembered the first night he spent the night at Sora's house when they were little and how in the middle of the night Sora curled up against him. Riku placed him on the bed and pulled the blanket over him. On the inside he was laughing at Cloud. He moved the chair from in front of the door and went downstairs where the smell of cooking bacon assaulted him.

"Morning Riku!" Yuffie greeted him cheerfully. He scowled at her.

"Well, aren't you just a little bundle of joy." She huffed in response. He had never been a morning person. Neither had Cloud. It was an extreme rarity for him to be up before 11:30. Aerith walked out of the kitchen humming some song with a plate of bacon and sausage.

"Good morning Riku. Did you sleep well?" She asked as if nothing had happened the night before.

"Fine thanks." He grumbled groggily. Aerith nodded and went back into the kitchen.

Riku glared at Yuffie.

"What?" Yuffie asked

"Damn you morning people and your cheery morning ness…" Riku said. Yuffie threw her head back and laughed. Leon walked in and looked at them confusedly.

"I hate you…" Riku said to him.

"Good morning to you too sunshine." Leon replied.

"Hey Aerith I called the warehouse and they can get us a new shipment of all the supplies that I broke last night by tomorrow." He yelled into the kitchen. He narrowly avoided a spatula come flying out of the kitchen, probably aimed at his head. He closed the door and mouthed PMS.

Yuffie laughed. "Yeah, she's almost as bad as Riku at 8 in the morning."

He looked at her and said, "Fuck you." This made both Yuffie and Leon laugh.

"So where's Sora? I thought Cloud said your weren't supposed to come down until you two talked." Leon sat down in one of the chairs.

"He was asleep. He looked so sweet. I wasn't about to wake him up." Riku smiled evilly. Leon chuckled.

"You know Cloud's not gonna be happy when he hears about this right?" He inquired.

"Yeah, well, Cloud can go blow a donkey for all I care." Riku replied.

"Well, let's not drag Hercules into this shall we?" Riku let out a laugh.

"OW MOTHERFUCKER!!" All three people jumped up from the table and ran to the kitchen. There was a pan laying on the floor with half-cooked eggs strewn all across the floor and another pan on the stove that had been overturned and uncooked pancake batter all over the counter, stove and floor. Aerith was on the floor with her arm hugged to her chest. Leon ran to her and started to ask her what happened. Riku and Yuffie put on oven mits and cleaned up the pans and the stove.

"Aerith, what happened?" They heard Leon ask.

"I went to flip the pancakes and I caught my forearm on the pan with the eggs and it stuck to my skin and came flying off the stove and burned my leg." She hissed through her teeth in pain. Leon sighed and turned to Riku.

"Could you go upstairs and get me the first-aid kit?" He asked. Riku nodded his head and got halfway to the door before Leon added, "Oh, and while you're up there, wake up Cloud. He should be aware of this."

"No! There's no reason we need to wake Cloud up for this, it's just a couple of burns." Aerith protested.

"No, however Cloud is the only person here who has any serious medical knowledge. So Riku? Go wake him up." Aerith pouted but didn't argue. Riku left and went up the stairs.

While he was fumbling around in the bathroom, he heard a door open and someone grumbling. He recognized that voice.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

Chapter 3:

He took one look at Sora and knew that he wasn't fully awake and only partially aware of his surrounding.

"Sora go back to bed, it's early." Sora looked at him with glazed unfocused eyes, and nodded. He rubbed his eyes and went back into the room. Riku shook his head while smiling. God he loved that boy. He finally found the first-aid kit then went to wake up Cloud.

He knocked on the door and there was no answer. He tried the handle and to his surprise it was unlocked. He pushed open the door and in the middle of the bed there was one huge mass of blankets and body mass. Riku walked over to it and shook Cloud's shoulder.

"Cloud, get up." He said not so pleasantly. There was no response from the older man so he tried again.

"Cloud! Get up!" Still nothing. Riku set the first-aid kit down and reached under the edge of the mattress. There was a flying scramble of human, blankets, and mattress as the bed was overturned. Not to mention a revealed stack of porn magazines. But even with all that all Cloud did was reposition himself and fall back asleep. Riku sighed and his mind fell upon his ace up his sleeve.

"Aerith's in trouble." Cloud was up and downstairs in a blur of blonde hair and boxers fast enough it was amazing he didn't have whiplash. Riku smiled and followed Cloud downstairs back into the kitchen.

Cloud was vigorously checking every nook and cranny of Aerith for any wounds other than the two burns. But Aerith finally had to draw the line when Cloud went to spread her legs.

"Cloud seriously, I'm fine. It's just a couple of burns. Now will you stop that?"

"Aerith I have to make sure that every thing else is okay. Now hold still." Riku threw the first aid kit at the back of Cloud's head.

"Hey dipshit, you might need this. Unless of course you mean to make gauze pads out of thin air." Cloud looked at the first-aid kit before picking it up.

"Thank you. Oh by the way, where's our little brown mouse?" And at that, all eyes turned to Riku. Riku took a step back toward the door.

"Yeah, about that…um, I think I hear the grocery market calling me." Riku darted out the pub and all you could hear was a resounding echo of "RIKU!!" all in unison.

Riku smiled to himself for nothing in particular. After a few minutes of walking the farmer's market came into view. Riku grabbed a basket and went about shopping for all the food that had been spilled during today's incident. As Riku was walking past all the stands selling fruits, vegetables, and other forms of edible finery, he heard a familiar voice arguing with one of the vendors. Sure enough, he turned the corner and there was Tifa arguing with the pomegranate vendor. As Riku went over to observe said argument, he found himself wondering, 'What in god's name could she possibly be arguing about? How the hell do you manage to get into an argument with a pomegranate vendor?' Sure enough, as he approached he heard Tifa yell, "I did not try to steal a pomegranate you senile old fool!"

Riku laughed to himself as he realized how often this happened. Riku silently wandered over to review the scenario. After a couple of minutes, Riku coughed loudly as to get their attention. Tifa whipped her head around to glare at whoever had interrupted her. But when she saw who it was, relief quickly filled her eyes.

"RIKU! I am so glad you're here. This old coot is falsely accusing me of stealing merchandise." Tifa pouted to the silver – haired teen. The old merchant started to really steam about that.

"I saw you! You put it in the hood of your jacket!" The man yelled in frustration. Riku eyed Tifa's hoodie and saw what the problem was.

"Tifa, could I see your jacket for a minute?" Riku asked coolly. Tifa looked confused but Riku told her not to worry.

"Okay. I don't know what you're doing but if you say so." She untied the jacket from around her waist and handed it to the younger man. The old man eyed them both suspiciously. Riku tied the jacket around his waist and placed a pomegranate on the edge of the booth and proceeded to walk by, making sure that he touched it as he passed by it. Sure enough, the pomegranate fell gracefully into the hood of Tifa's jacket. Tifa clapped happily and the old man apologized to Tifa. Riku returned her hoodie and the wandered through the market together.

"So, why did you run off last night?" Tifa asked curiously after a long pause.

"What do you mean?" Riku replied, honestly baffled by this question.

"Sora showed up last night at around midnight. He seemed pretty out of breath and concerned. Did you and he have a little too much fun?" Tifa asked playfully. She had been the only person that Riku had told. And he preferred to keep it that way.

"What!? Does everyone know about that now? No we didn't have any fun, he's straight. Remember? Besides, you know how shy Sora is. He would never let me do something when his mom was home! I love him, but I'm not going to push anything on to him that he doesn't want. And I think it's pretty clear that he doesn't want me." Riku explained. Tifa smiled as if she knew something that she was hiding. But Riku knew better than to ask. Last time he questioned that smile, he and Cloud wound up with their pants around their ankles being compared. Can you say creepy?

"Anyway, what are you doing here on this fine morning?" Tifa asked. Riku held up the basket in response.

"Aerith burned herself on the frying pan, and then she just totally burned herself up. So I'm bringing home the bacon. Pun totally intended." Tifa laughed. Riku couldn't help but remember all the times he missed her laugh. She was such a big sister when it came to Riku. And Riku loved it when she babied him. For some reason, it was different when Aerith did it. Aerith was just overbearing. Tifa was seriously caring. Riku and Tifa walked in silence for a while. Riku had to stop at a stall that was selling eggs and bought a couple dozen then went around to the rest of the stalls. He finished up his shopping and saw Tifa eyeing a watermelon.

"If you promise to tell me what you know, I'll buy it for you." Tifa looked at him with eyes big as saucers. She was such a sucker for watermelon it was borderline pathetic. Riku turned around and paid for a small watermelon and held it out to her. But as she reached for it he yanked it out of her reach.

"Uh-uh-uh! You have to swear to keep your end of the bargain first." Tifa gave Riku a heavy sigh before raising her left hand, and placing her right hand over her heart.

"Oh mighty Riku, I swear, your honor, that I will tell you all I know for the price of a ripe, juicy, yummy, sweet, tasty – "

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, I accept your solemn oath, now spill!" Riku loved how he could reveal his more girly, flamboyant, flamer side of his personality in front of Tifa. She looked around quickly and grabbed his hand and yanked him out of the shopping market to a fairly deserted courtyard.

"Okay, but you cannot tell Sora or anyone that I am telling you this or else." Tifa said really seriously.

"Or else what?" Riku smirked.

"Or else I will show everyone the pictures of you from last new years." Tifa gave Riku a stern look as his mouth fell open in surprise.

"I thought you burned those." Riku said accusingly. Tifa just shook her head with an evil look on her face.

"OH MY GOD I HATE YOU!" Riku yelled.

"Do you swear?" Tifa persisted. Riku let out a frustrated groan that made Tifa smile.

"I'll take that as a yes. Okay, a while back Sora stayed the night at my house. Well we were talking and this was a couple weeks after you had returned from Castle Oblivion."

Flashback

"I'm just so happy he's back, but he still hasn't told me where he's staying." Sora took the soda that Tifa offered him and smiled up at her.

"Well we all are, but I don't think you should worry so much about where he's staying. Riku's a big boy. He can take care of himself. But if you ask me he's been acting really weird ever since he got back." Tifa settled down on the bed next to the brown haired boy.

"I haven't really seen any strange behavior really except when he found out that his parents hadn't made it back from the darkness. But it's understandable. His mom and dad were everything to him, and he gets back expecting them to be there, and come to find out they had been unfortunate enough to become heartless. I mean, I don't want to be mean or anything but that doesn't really surprise me. It actually explains why he was so easily taken over by the darkness." Sora explained as Tifa flipped channels absently.

"Well, Riku really cares about you and I think that he's been acting less strange with you because he doesn't want you to worry." Tifa said calmly. Sora snorted.

"What? He does care about you." Sora looked at her with a look that said he didn't believe her.

"Not the way I care about him though." Tifa looked at Sora for a second until she ventured into unmarked territory.

"D-do you like…Riku? Do you have a crush on him?" Tifa kind of giggled as Sora turned twenty different shades of red.

"Oh my god you totally have a crush on him!!" Sora threw a pillow at her and she only laughed harder.

"When did you realize you were a homosexcicle?" Tifa said jokingly…sort of. Sora looked kind of thoughtful for a minute.

"The first time he stayed the night at my house. I woke up and realized that I had curled up against him. He was fast asleep and he just looked so sexy, and I couldn't resist, I had to kiss him. So I kissed him on the lips, but then one kiss led to another and…" Sora explained awkwardly.

"Are you trying to tell me that you violated poor innocent Riku in his sleep? You dirty boy!" Tifa fake gasped at him.

"WHAT!! NO! I kissed him on the lips, but then I kissed his jaw, then his neck, then his chest, but when I kissed his chest he shifted and I was really too embarrassed to do anything else so I just laid back down and put my arm across his chest and fell asleep to the sound of his breathing." Sora said with a dreamy look on his face.

End Flashback

Riku listened intently as Tifa replayed the entire conversation. When she was finished, Riku was left breathless. He never knew that Sora actually did share his feelings.

"So now that you know all that, what are you going to do?" Tifa asked a stunned Riku. He looked up at her with a determined look on his face.

"Well, there's really only one thing I can do." Riku turned on his heel and bolted back to The Den of The Lion and The Wolf.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

Riku slammed through the front door and Yuffie was hard at work kicking Leon and Cloud's butts at Black Jack.

"Riku! You're back!" Yuffie said excitedly. Riku walked right past her into the kitchen put the basket of groceries on the countertop next to Aerith.

"Oh thank you Riku." Aerith said graciously.

"Where's Sora?" Riku asked pointedly.

"What?" Aerith seemed taken aback by this change of heart.

"He's, um…upstairs. In your room. He's just been staring out the window since he woke up." But Riku didn't hear this last part because he was already heading out of the kitchen and up the stairs. Riku strode to the door and didn't even hesitate to open door. He swung it open and saw Sora sitting in a chair staring out the window but when the door slammed open, Sora's attention snapped to Riku.

"Riku I – " But Sora was cut off as Riku strode over to him and put his hands on each side of Sora's face, practically pulling him out of the chair and firmly placed his lips against the smaller boy's, leaving a little wiggle room in case Sora panicked. But to Riku's relief the brown haired beauty seemed to almost melt into it. Riku started to cry as Sora deepened the kiss. Riku pulled away first.

"Sora before you say anything I want you to know that I love you. I always have, and no matter how you feel about me that's not going to change. I just want you to be happy and if that doesn't involve me than I can live with that. I just want you to know that I love you so much, but if I can't have you then I can't live in the same house as you. It would tear me apart having to look at what I can't have every day because the love that you can't have lasts the longest, feels the strongest, and hurts the worst." The entire time Riku was talking, he was fighting against a lump in his throat the size of a grapefruit and he had entirely given up on fighting back the tears that were streaming down full force. Sora's eyes welled up with tears.

"You idiot. I've loved you this whole time. For someone who can kick anyone's ass at poker, you suck at telling someone's feelings." Sora said humorously. They both laughed as Sora leaned up and kissed Riku again. And Riku knew that there would never be a more beautiful moment in his life then that moment.

But then a thought came into his mind. One that would bother him until he finally got an answer.

What about Kairi?


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5:

Riku decided that the question could wait. Now was the time that he needed to worry about. Riku wrapped his arms around the smaller boy as Sora leaned into him. Sora ran his tongue over Riku's lower lip, asking entrance. Riku happily obliged and opened his lips slightly. Sora slid his tongue into the older boys mouth tentatively nudging his tongue. Riku slid his tongue over Sora's and they gingerly explored each other's mouth. Sora slid his arms around Riku's neck as the silver haired man put his hand on the back of Sora's head to deepen the kiss. He leaned his crotch into Sora and he let out a low moan.

Riku started to back towards the bed, but Sora stumbled and fell into Riku causing them to crash to the floor. Riku smacked his head on the bed frame, which had left an extremely painful throbbing on the back of his skull, whereas, Riku's throbbing carcass had made an excellent cushion for Sora and the only thing he hurt was his elbow.

"Oh my god, Riku I'm so sorry are you okay?" Sora threw his hands up in panic. Riku couldn't help but think how cute Sora was when he was all flustered. He also couldn't help but notice that Sora was straddling Riku's waist. Riku grabbed Sora's shoulders and flipped them so he was on top and Sora blushed slightly at the sudden change of position. Riku gently stroked his loves cheek before lowering his face for a soft, innocent kiss. Riku pulled away slightly and green eyes met blue with a piercing gaze.

"Sora?" Riku said quietly. Sora looked up at him.

"Yeah Riku?"

"I love you." The green eyed boy asked.

"I love you too." Sora said with a small smile

"Will you make love to me?" Riku asked simply. Sora met the older man's gaze full on and blinked a couple times before answering.

"Yes." Sora replied before pulling the older man's face down for another intense kiss. Riku rubbed his hard cock across Sora's before attempting to stand up. Riku stood up never breaking the lip lock, pulling Sora up with him and gently laying him down on the bed before lying down on top of him. Riku pushed Sora's jacket off and let it slip to the floor before pushing his own vest and arm warmer off and unzipping his shirt, hastily pulling it off.

Sora reached up and ran his hands across Riku's well-sculpted chest running his hands over it admiring the scars there. Even though Sora hated how the organization treated Riku while he was there, he saw them as a roadmap of where his heart had been, and they only made him even more beautiful.

Riku grabbed Sora's hands and slid his gloves off, as well as his shirt. Riku traced the scars that resided on Sora's arms, shoulders, and torso. Reminders of his lonely battles with the heartless. Times when Riku should've been there for him. But one scar in particular, the one right on Sora's solar plexus, where Sora stabbed himself with the key blade to revive Kairi. The one time that Riku was there, he was against Sora. It may not have been his mind, but it was his heart that was taken over. His love had stabbed himself, all because of Riku. Tears started to well in Riku's eyes and Sora quickly wiped them away.

"Don't cry, everything's okay now." Riku leaned down and kissed Sora gently on the forehead. Sora looked at the man, passion in his eyes, and pulled him down for a hot, lust – filled kiss. Riku closed his eyes and lavished in the feeling of Sora's warm tongue excitedly exploring his mouth.

Riku threw a leg to each side of Sora's hips, letting his hands slide just under the edge of Sora's pants. Just enough to make the boy moan in anticipation. Riku ground there erections together gently at first, but then more heatedly. After doing that a few times, Sora finally gave out a loud gasp. Riku undid Sora's pants with the greatest of ease. He backed his body to the foot of the bed, sliding Sora's pants off teasingly. Once the pants were off he let them slide to floor and slowly ran his hands up Sora's legs, working his way to the inner thigh, before gently cupping Sora's package. Riku was oddly surprised at how…well endowed Sora was in the packaging department. Sora almost yelled in ecstasy at this action, making Riku smile.

Sora looked at Riku and saw the pleased look on his face before he let out a loud moan as Riku found the head of Sora's cock. He pumped it a couple times and Sora bit his lip to keep down the scream that was threatening to erupt from somewhere deep in his chest. Riku removed Sora's boxers and Sora began to flush from excitement. Riku looked at Sora, as he turned red from the pleasure before lowering his head. He placed the throbbing member on his tongue before pulling the whole of it into his mouth.

Sora let the yell out as the pleasure from Riku's steady sucking began to increase. Suddenly, right before he peaked, when the pleasure was greatest, Riku removed Sora's hard member from his mouth, wet his fingers with saliva and slipped his finger into Sora's opening. Sora let out another yell as Riku began to rub the inside of Sora and replaced Sora's cock in his mouth. Riku built Sora up to his peak and gave it one last hard suck. Sora couldn't hold back, his come spilled into Riku's mouth. He swallowed it surprised that it didn't taste as bad as he thought it would.

Sora was panting, blushing, salivating, and sweating all over, all at the same time. Riku pulled himself back over Sora when there came a knock on the door accompanied by a soft melodic voice.

"Sora are you in here?" Before Riku or Sora could protest, the door opened uninvited.

Riku and Sora stared at the burgundy haired girl that stood in the doorway.

"Oh shit." Was all Kairi said as she stared at the two boys on the bed.

Kairi looked at Sora then Riku and tears started to well up in her eyes. She turned on her heel and ran like a bat out of hell. Sora pulled himself out from under Riku and grabbed his clothes from the floor and dressed in record time before chasing after Kairi.

"Kairi wait a minute!" Riku looked out the door for a second before bolting down the stairs after both of them screaming inside his head, 'what the hell just happened!?'

Riku hit the bottom of the stairs just in time to see Sora make a sharp right out the front door. Riku darted after them past Cloud who happened to have a very confused look on his face. For once, Riku was grateful to the darkness, which had made him stronger and faster, even if he wasn't a servant of the darkness anymore. Riku saw Kairi turn a corner and he took a short cut in the hopes he'd be able to cut her off, if for nothing else than to find out what exactly just conspired between the Sora and Kairi. It seemed luck had a knack for being in his favor. He ran right in front of Kairi making her halt in her tracks, she turned around and went to run in the opposite direction, unfortunately for her Sora just came around the corner, breathing heavily.

Riku looked from Kairi to Sora. Kairi looked at Riku with a look that could have left Riku as a grease spot if it could kill. Riku crossed his arms in front of his chest and fixed them both with an intense look. There was a long silence before Riku started to get really antsy. Kairi turned towards Riku and stared straight past Riku as she started to walk off. Riku waited until she was right next to him and grabbed her arm.

"I don't think you're going anywhere." Riku said flatly. Kairi whipped around and swung her fist as hard as she could. She didn't look it, but she had one hell of a left hook. Riku heard his neck pop as the girls fist came into contact with his cheek. He looked at her as she glared at him, tears streaming down her face. Riku rotated his jaw and looked at her with an amused expression.

"Okay, now you're really not going anywhere, because something tells me, that Sora owes you an explanation, and I think now, I deserve one. And right now, I'd really love to know what the hell I just missed." Riku looked from Kairi to Sora, and noticed that Sora was staring very intently down, blushing heavily. Riku furrowed his brow. He didn't like the feeling he was getting.

"You, shoe gazer, is there something you didn't tell me?" Sora looked up at him meekly as Kairi yanked her arm out of Riku's grasp and stalked over to Sora and smacking him a good one across the face.

"Well Sora is there something you neglected to mention to Riku before you fucked him?" Kairi said bitterly, venom almost visibly dripping from the words. Sora looked desperately from Kairi to Riku, hoping for some kind of miracle to save him, but he finally gave up, realizing that this was a no – win situation for him.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you before Riku, but I'm dating Kairi." Sora said quietly. Riku's mouth fell open in disbelief.

"What?" Was all he could say…


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6:

Riku looked at Sora for a moment before turning on his heel and walking quickly away from the pair. Not now or ever again would he let Sora see Riku cry over him.

Riku ran the entire way back to the pub. He sulked into the main room and was greeted by a concerned Aerith, and a quite curious Cloud and Yuffie.

"Riku, is everything okay?" Aerith asked. Riku stopped at the bottom of the stairs. He chuckled bitterly before turning to the three.

"Okay…humph…it will be." Riku stated vaguely before disappearing up the stairs. Riku walked into his room and quietly shut the door behind him. He leaned against the door and sighed quietly, thinking to himself. After a while he began talking to himself.

"How could I have missed that? All the time he spent at Kairi's in the afternoon. All that one on one study time after school. The secretive looks, everything. I missed every last road sign." The entire time getting more and more frustrated with himself.

"How could I have missed everything? Was I so selfish that I didn't see what was going on right in front of me? Maybe I didn't miss anything. Maybe I saw it and just didn't want to admit that it was there. No, it wasn't my fault. Sora didn't tell me. He didn't want me to know. He didn't want me to know because he was planning this all along. This is what he wanted. He couldn't decide so he thought he could have the both of us. But now he gets neither of us." Riku walked over to the bed and noticed that Sora had forgotten his gloves. Riku smiled as he picked them up and took them downstairs.

"Hey Yuffie. Can you do me a super huge favor?" Riku asked. Yuffie looked up and furrowed her brow in confusion.

"Sure Riku, what do you need?" She replied guardedly.

"Can you take these to Sora's house for me? I have a couple things I need to do otherwise I'd take them back myself." Riku set the gloves on the table in front of the ninja girl. Yuffie shifted her eyes from his smiling face to the gloves sitting on the table suspiciously.

"All right." She reached a tentative hand out and removed the gloves from the table. She set her book down and stood up nodding.

"Yeah, okay. But you have to do something for me." She bartered.

"What's that?" Riku asked snickering to himself.

"Tell me what's wrong when I get back." She said sullenly. Riku forced a look of confusion.

"Don't give me that. I can tell something's on your mind. Unfortunately, I've never been good about getting into your head. So when I get back you have to tell me what happened when you chased after Sora and Kairi earlier." Yuffie explained. Riku let the fake smile drop before he nodded.

"You got it." Riku gave her a weak smile. Yuffie returned the gesture and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Riku coughed a couple times waving away the final wisps of Yuffie's exit.

"Can't she leave a room like normal people?" Riku shook his head before heading back upstairs. He walked up to his new room and dug around in his duffel bag until he found what it was that he was looking for. He pulled it out and laid it on his bed before treading down the stairs.

"Hey Aerith?" he called into the kitchen as he forced a smile onto his face. Aerith looked up from the frying pan she was currently tending.

"Yeah Riku?" She asked.

"Do you have a pen and a pad of paper somewhere? I need to write Yuffie a note." He asked trying to keep his voice as neutral as possible. 

"Yeah sure. There should be some behind the bar. Hey Riku? Is everything okay? I mean really okay?" Aerith asked. Concern evident on her face. Riku smiled at her.

"Yeah, everything's great! I'm just going to go take a shower so I need to make sure that Yuffie knows something." Aerith nodded her head and Riku headed behind the bar. Once he had located the pad of paper he headed back up the stairs and locked his door.

He sat on the windowsill and stared out the window trying to figure out what to write. Once he finished he set the note on the pillow on his bed, picked up the bundle on the bed, and escaped out to the park where him and Sora and Kairi used to play. He found the tree that the three of them had carved their names into.

Riku placed his hand gingerly on the scarred tree. He started to cry as he remembered the day they did that. With one last look back towards the direction of the house, Riku sighed and quickly made his way to the top of the tree. 

The tree was a good 40 some feet high. He looked out over the park letting all the memories and tears of Sora flow through him. Riku slowly unwrapped the bundle that he had tucked under his arm.

Riku's fingers wrapped tenderly around the cold metal of the dagger's sheath. It had been a present for Riku's birthday from Sora. Riku smiled at the comic value of this whole situation. In less than 12 hours, Sora has managed to turn Riku from someone who was happy, and brave enough to face another day to someone who was too miserable to see the sun anymore. With one last look at the park Riku placed the cold blade against his wrist, pressed down and ripped through the skin with a deadly silence, which that alone made his heart skip a beat and his chest and head go numb. But it wasn't enough. He placed it again and again and again. Making more lines, more gashes, more blood, more tears.

As tears and blood continued to spill out, Riku kept thinking to himself, 'Why? Why isn't this going faster? Why can't my body die as easily as my heart?' Riku's arm was now covered in blood; his pants were soaked with tears and blood. Riku looked at the dagger and alternated hands and started to slice haphazardly. Still, it wasn't fast enough. He gripped the handle with both his hands, pressed the blade against his jugular artery; and sliced open his neck. He smiled as he felt his head go light, and his chest start to feel heavy. The dagger slipped through his fingers and fell to the ground. He started to slide sideways and fell off his high perch, plummeting to the ground right before he slipped into darkness he said in a hoarse whisper, "I love you Sora." And hit the ground with a heavy thud.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7:

Yuffie walked into the house and looked around. She poked her head into the kitchen and Yuffie was doing dishes. Tears streaming down her face.

"Hey Aerith? What's wrong?" Yuffie rushed over to Aerith who looked up and broke down into hysterical sobs.

"Hey. Come on now, what can possibly be that bad? Did you and Cloud have another fight?" Yuffie wrapped her arms around the taller girl trying to comfort her.

"No, it's not, that…it's…Riku…I think he, he, I think he killed himself!" Aerith choked out between sobs. Yuffie's heart stopped beating for a moment. She felt like she couldn't breath.

"What do you mean?" Yuffie asked in a stunned voice.

"I…found a, a note on his bed. A su…suicide…note. Leon and, and Cloud are…out looking…for, him." Aerith continued to sob hysterically between words.

"Where's the note now?" Yuffie asked in disbelief. Aerith pulled out a crumpled and tear stained note from her pocket and handed it to Yuffie.

"He said he, he was going to…to take a shower…I didn't think…oh god!" Aerith sank to the floor as Yuffie read the note.

"Dear Yuffie, and everyone else,

I'm sorry. I don't know what else to say. I can't live knowing that Sora would betray me like that. I don't want to live knowing that I'm not the one that he truly loves. Hell, I'd rather he not love me at all than not be able to choose between. Tell Kairi that I'm sorry. I never meant to give Sora a means to do that to her. I never would've wanted any of this to happen, but I guess it can't be helped. Tell Sora that he doesn't have to decide anymore. Actually, tell him he can go do his little dance in hell now. I've lost everything that made me happy in this world. But maybe I can find it all again in the afterlife. This life is too painful. It's so hard to keep on living when you know you don't want to. Do you think it hurts too much to die? It's hurting so much more to be alive. I'd rather kill myself than endure this pain. I love you all so much. So do me one last favor, okay? Don't cry. Be happy that I found a way out of this unbearable pain.

Forever in your hearts and memories,

-Riku"

Yuffie stared in disbelief at the letter in her hand. Her heart was sitting approximately at the place where her intestines were supposed to be. Yuffie gripped the note tightly in her fist as she tore up the stairs. She looked in all the rooms, hoping, no, praying that this was just a prank, a sympathy catcher. Anything but what it really was. Yuffie stalked down the stairs back into the kitchen. Aerith was still in a sobbing heap on the floor. She knelt down and gripped Aerith's shoulders tightly shaking her a little.

"Aerith, look at me. LOOK AT ME!" Yuffie snapped. Aerith's eyes focused on the petite ninja.

"Has anyone called Sora?" Aerith stared at her blankly for a moment before shaking her head. Yuffie stood up and walked back out to the bar and picked up the phone. Dialing the number for Sora's house she waited three rings until a familiar voice answered the phone monotonously.

"Hello?" Sora asked.

"Sora? This is Yuffie. You need to get down to the pub now." She said vaguely.

"Let me guess. Riku just told you what happened. Why should I go down there? So Riku can tell me how much he hates me? Or so you can yell at me for being so cruel to him? Or for him to try to beg me to be with him and him alone?" Sora replied in an irritated voice.

"What, pissed off that you couldn't have multiple lovers? Fuck you and pull your head out of your ass you unbelievable shithead!" Yuffie yelled in response.

"Is that all you have to say? If that's the case, then I'm leaving. Oh, and tell Riku that he can go ahead and throw his little tantrum. Because I'm not going to choose between him and Kairi."

"Well I can't exactly tell Riku that."

"And why not?" Sora snickered.

"Because he's dead!" Yuffie screamed into the mouthpiece of the phone. There was silence on both ends for a long while. Nobody dared breathe.

"What…?" Sora said disbelief evident in his voice.

"Yeah, Riku killed himself; at least we think he did. At least that's what he left in the note. We don't know where he is, what he did, or what he's going to do but Leon and Cloud are both out looking for him. And if you gave a flying shit about him, you would be to. I'm about to go out and look for him as well. If you care about him at all, you'd be wise to do the same, or at the very least come over here and sit with Aerith who's in hysterics right now, and probably ready to stick her head into the oven. If not, don't worry, we'll all understand." Yuffie quickly hung up the phone before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Sora sat on his end of the line with nothing but the dial tone ringing in his ear. 'Dead? Riku's…dead. That can't be right. Riku's the strongest person I know. There's no way he'd kill himself. It's got to be a trick. It's got to be. It just has to be.' Sora thought to himself, trying to convince himself. But the more he tried to convince himself, the more his stomach knotted up and the less he believed it.

Sora was walking out the door before he realized it. He knew that Riku would never be found if he didn't want to be found so he figured he might as well go sit at the pub and try to calm Aerith down. She was a very drastic girl and Sora wouldn't put it past her to stick a knife in her wrist.

Sora was sitting at the table with a still crying Aerith staring into his cup of tea when the phone rang loudly making them both jump out of their skin. Aerith rose to answer it and Sora ordered her to sit back down.

Sora picked up the phone on the second ring.

"Hello?" Sora said in a weak voice.

"Hey." Leon's voice came across the line. Sora held his breath waiting for more.

"So? Anything?" Sora asked expectantly. Hopefully.

"We…we found Riku." Leon said in an empty tone that didn't sit well with Sora.

Sora and Aerith ran into the hospital ER looking around for Leon and Cloud. They found them sitting in a secluded corner of the waiting room. They both rushed over to them. A dark cloud hanging over everyone as Yuffie rushed in not shortly after them. Yuffie gave Sora a glare that could've made his blood run cold if it wasn't already frozen in his veins.

"What's the word?" Yuffie inquired hopefully. Leon and Cloud didn't even blink. It was then that everyone noticed the bloodstains all over Leon and Cloud's clothes and hands and arms. Yuffie stared blankly with Sora as Aerith put her hand to her mouth.

"His heart had already stopped beating by the time we got there." Cloud said coldly.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8:

"When the ambulance arrived, they loaded him into the ambulance trying to start his heart again, but he had already lost so much blood, they didn't know if they could. Multiple slashes across his wrists and forearms, as well as a slit across his throat. He also possibly broke a number of bones, and he may have also broken his neck when he fell out of the tree. As it stands, it's still a struggle, and a losing battle at that to keep him alive. Got to hand it to the kid. He tried to make damn sure and well that he did it right the first time." Cloud continued.

Sora noticed Leon gripping something tightly in his left hand. He must have noticed Sora staring because he slid it across the table.

"Recognize this?" Leon said, anger dripping like venom. Sora looked at it, before reaching down to pick it up, only to yank his hand back. It was wet and sticky with blood. He picked it up and realized that it was the dagger that Sora had given Riku for his birthday.

Sora started to cry.

"We found that a couple feet away from Riku." Sora looked at them as tears slid down his face onto the blade. Clearing away some of the blood as it slid off the blade.

A doctor walked out to the waiting room and all of them turned as he approached them.

"Are you all the friends and family of Riku?" He asked simply. They all nodded.

"Is he okay?" Aerith choked out. The doctor looked at them for a minute before letting out a heavy sigh. Sora's heart seized in his chest as he gripped the handle of the blade tightly.

"He's lost a lot of blood. It's shocking that he's still alive; he has less than half of the blood that a human body requires to keep living." Aerith let out a loud sob of joy. Sora let out his breath that he didn't realize he had been holding for a million years. The doctor continued.

"Surprisingly, he didn't break his neck, but he suffered a broken arm, a fractured rib, a broken collarbone, and severe head trauma. But that's to be expected since he did fall out of a pretty tall tree, and from the looks of it hit a few branches on the way down.

"At the moment he is in full comatose, and there's no way for us to wake him up. We'll just have to wait this one out and hope it turns out for the best. But whatever made him do this to himself; you all better pray that it doesn't happen again. When he wakes up, if he wakes up, I think it would be a wise idea to send him to a mental health institute. I don't mean offense by that. I do believe that if he doesn't have amnesia that that would be the best plan of action. At least for a few months. You know, some counseling and a little time away from the day-to-day life. Time to think through his thoughts and emotions. The broken bones, believe it or not, with the exception of the rib, were clean breaks and should heal with no problems." The doctor nodded as he gave a positive smile.

Still gripping the handle of the dagger Sora took a shaky breath.

"Can, can we see him? Please." The small boy said in a quiet voice. The doctor looked at him for a moment mulling it over in his head.

"I suppose, but only a couple at a time please. Room 376." He gave them one last look before turning around. Sora looked back at everyone. Except for Leon they all nodded before Sora started down the hallway to Riku's room.

Sora's heart stopped when he saw Riku hooked up to all those machines. The heart monitors blipping slowly and unsteadily. For the longest time Sora stood there listening to the monitor; bip…bip…bip bip………bip…bip……bip…bip…bip bip bip bip. There were IV's sticking out of his arm and hand. Sora watched the IV drip, and the bag of blood slowly empty into Riku's veins.

Sora was so focused on Riku that he didn't notice Leon come up behind him.

"He loved you. He loved you more than his own life. How does that make you feel?" Leon said coldly. Sora let a few more tears slide down his face before wiping them away.

"Makes me feel like shit." Sora said weakly.

"I don't know why I did it. I didn't want anyone to get hurt. Feel rejected. But I guess sometimes the worst pain comes from the best intentions. I don't know what to do. I don't know what I want to do. How do you apologize for something like this? How do you make it better?" Sora asked to no one in particular.

"You can't. There's no way to fix things that are this broken. All you can do is repent and pray for forgiveness. Or at the very least hope that he has amnesia and won't want to try this again. Just like the doctor said." Leon said with a morbid tone.

Sora stared intently at Riku's unconscious form, willing him to wake up. Leon placed a hand on Sora's shoulder.

"As angry as I am at you for doing this in the first place, I know that you didn't do this on purpose. I know that you didn't want this to happen, so I can't totally blame you." Sora peeled his eyes from Riku and looked up at the older man as Leon gave him a kind smile.

"Thank you." Sora said quietly. Leon nodded and gently pushed him towards the door. The door opened silently as Sora padded into the room. There was a chair by the bed that Sora sat himself down in with an exhausted sigh. Sora looked at the older boy laying in that starched white hospital bed, his arms and throat wrapped in red stained bandages. Sora watched Riku's chest rise and fall in quick shallow breaths, praying that there will come another, and another and another. Sora started to cry as he laid his head down by Riku's hand.

Aerith watched in silence behind the observation glass as Sora grasped Riku's still hand tightly in his own.

Finally, she spoke.

"Why? Why did it have to happen to them? Why Riku of all people? Doesn't he know what this has done to us all?" She said what she knew everyone was thinking. Cloud put his arm around her shoulders as she started to sob again.

"Because he didn't care. He only wanted to end his pain." He explained stoically. From the hollow sound of his voice, it sounded like he was talking from experience. Aerith turned and walked back to the waiting room. Cloud took one last look at Sora and Riku before following after her.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9:

Riku blinked his eyes open groggily. He could smell the bleached stain of the hospital sheets he was laying in.

'Why didn't it work? How could they find me? Shit…' Riku thought to himself. But his thoughts were quickly cut short when he felt movement next to him. He clamped his eyes shut and silently prayed, 'Please don't let Aerith see me in this state. Anyone else but Aerith.' Riku opened his eyes and almost had heart failure when he saw the tear stained face of Sora sitting next to him fast asleep. He looked at the clock on the wall and saw that it had only been four hours since he set out of the pub.

'Fuck me. Okay, I take that back. Anyone else EXCEPT him.' He thought to himself, fuming at the god he had long since thought was dead and his sick idea of a joke. Then suddenly an idea popped into his head. Riku quietly sat up in his starched white bed. He climbed out of the bed and took off his oxygen mask. Riku looked at all the machines hooked up to him.

He ripped the IVs out of his arms, and yanked the plugs from the outlet in the wall making everything go blank. No beep alerting them of his intentions. Riku took the dagger out of Sora's hand and walked to the bathroom. He took a long look at his bandages. He tore them off with a vengeance letting them fall to the floor. The gauze stuck to the scabs and tore open the stitches causing his wounds to reopen. Riku took the dagger and looked at the blood stained flesh on the back of his hand. He put the tip of the dagger to the skin and drew the heartless symbol with a few quick strokes. He walked back out to the room and climbed back into the bed. He started to cry again, but this time silently. So as not to wake Sora. He kissed the top of Sora's head, wrinkling his nose when Sora's mussy brown hair tickled him, and silently whispered to the ceiling, "I love you, my little warrior." Riku felt himself slipping into the welcoming darkness again.

Sora woke to a commotion coming from the hallway. He went to stand up and put his hand in something sticky. He looked down in horror at the blood-stained sheets. All the color was gone from Riku's skin, and his lips were a pale blue. The color of death, he thought to himself, when he saw the oxygen mask sitting on the floor by Riku's bed. Sora tentatively searched for a pulse but to no avail.

"No, not again. I WON'T LOSE YOU AGAIN! COME BACK YOU ASS HOLE! COME BACK!!!" Sora started to sob uncontrollably. He grabbed Riku's shoulders and shook his stiff lifeless form as if it would wake him from his eternal slumber. He climbed onto the bed and held the older boy's cold body to his chest as he cried deep sorrowful sobs.

Suddenly the commotion that had awaken Sora was right outside the door. The door burst open with a loud slam that made the brunette jump. Or jump as much as he could with a dead body sitting in his lap. He looked to the door way and saw a smiling Kairi. But her smile wasn't warm, wasn't happy. It was cold and empty, and Sora couldn't figure out why until he saw the cold glint of silver in her left hand.

"Kairi, wha-" But before he could finish the sentence Kairi raised her arm and pointed the gun straight at Sora's face.

"Shut up. You toyed with my emotions, then fucked Riku behind my back. Caused him to commit suicide, and then come back to beg forgiveness, even though you know that Riku's not the type to give up that easily. You're done hurting people. Fuck you Sora, and good night." Kairi said, she squeezed the trigger and everything seemed to go into slow motion, but at the same time everything happened so fast no one could help. The bullet found it's mark and blew off a chunk of Sora's skull. Blood and brain matter splattered all over the room. The 9-mm fell to the ground as Leon got to the door.

He could hear Yuffie yell something down the hall.

"Is _everyone_ from Destiny Islands fucking _insane_!?" He could also hear Aerith and Cloud following in front of her. Leon looked at Cloud and thought fast.

"CLOUD! KEEP THERE!!!" He yelled in earnest making Cloud stop dead in his tracks. Aerith and Yuffie ran into his halted back and tried to look over his shoulder to see what had made him stop. Cloud pivoted on his heel and tried to put his arms out fast enough to keep Aerith from seeing the window, but he wasn't quick enough and Aerith gave a blood curdling scream as she looked at the mass of what was previously Sora's skull smeared on the observation window. She covered her mouth and dropped to the floor in a new fit of heart-wrenching sobs. Yuffie stood in stunned silence at the macabre image displayed before her. Cloud reached down to take Aerith in his arms, but she shoved him away uncharacteristically violently for her. She took off in the opposite direction. Yuffie took off after her.

"Oh no you don't! We don't need another death today!" Cloud stayed on the floor until he heard sirens a couple a minutes later.

The police came running into the hospital room and immediately cuffed Kairi, and read the crying girl her rights as they hauled her to the police car. Leon leaned against the wall and slid down. Cloud couldn't breath, but he heard Leon letting out gentle sobs as if he was trying to stifle the sound.

He got up and went over to the younger man. Quietly he wrapped his arm around Leon and cried with him. They had lost two of the strongest people they knew, two allies, brothers, sons, friends…

**THREE DAYS LATER**

**It was chilly as they all stood around the two graves at the Destiny Island's cemetery. Sora's mom, who had sobbed through the entire burial in mourning over the loss of her two sons, had left long ago. Leon, Cloud, Yuffie, Aerith, even Cid flew in for the funeral. They had decided to bury the two boys side by side. As in life, so in death, as they say. Finally, even the small group left started to trickle away, until there was no one left.**

**The sun set, casting it's final rays of light to the polished granite. Both with an identical saying.**

"**Remember me as you pass by, as you are now so once was I. As I am now, so you must be, so prepare for death and follow me." Those headstones still stand today, watching the horizon, where the sky meets the earth. Laying side by side for eternity. **


	10. Message to the Readers

Wow…to think that I published this story, as well as my other story Redemption a year ago. It's been a great run and I've had so many people favorite it. I'm feel so proud to know that I wrote a story that people thought were so good. I'm so happy that you all enjoyed the story so much. I love getting feedback on my stories, and am always looking for more criticism to build on. Thank you all so much for the devoted reading! I can't wait to see what you all think of my future works!

Sincerity in Truth

Butterfly K


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